Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the display and monetization of information objects in online pages.
Background
The Internet is a system of interconnected computer networks that interconnects users all around the world. The World Wide Web (Web) is a decentralized global collection of interlinked information that is accessible over the Internet. Information is generally made available on the Web in the form of “web pages” that may contain text, images, and/or media content. Through the contributions of countless users, the Web has grown to become a vast, decentralized treasure trove of information.
The Internet and the Web have enabled many advances in advertising and electronic commerce (the buying and selling of products or services over networks). The amount of commerce conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. Commercial products are bought and sold over the Internet in increasingly greater amounts. For example, an interactive online object may represent a product for sale by an “owner” who provides the online object. A user may interact with the online object to purchase a physical instance of the product from the owner. However, such techniques do not fully leverage the potential of online objects for enhancing electronic commerce. As a result, less revenue may be generated by sellers of products and services than is possible.